4/26/2014

Last night while at a small dinner party, I was introduced to an art history professor who is also the director of a center on campus devoted to art and faith and the intersection therein. He was an unpretentious and charming conversationalist, and we had a lively discussion about the relationship of artist and viewer, and the unique form of communication art is. Whether the intended thought or message is actually received by the viewer, or whether they give a dismissive glance and move on, a response has been elicited. Mission accomplished, I guess.

So, it was a bit coincidental that upon getting home last night, I found that performance art is in the news this week. Not being a fan of that particular brand of art, I was nonetheless drawn in by the introductory statement, which was bizarrely compelling in its insufferable arrogance and delusions of relevance. It took crazy to a whole new level. A mesmerizing train wreck: I just couldn’t look away. And then I had to watch the performance, if only to have my reaction confirmed. First the statement: A Milo Moiré Performance @ The Opening of Art Cologne.

An upright standing nude on a loft… One with ink and acrylic fueled egg… A preserved canvas…

What the spectators are about to expect, is the compressed birth of a piece of art.
Slowly the egg leaves the natal canal of the artist and smashes on the canvas, red colour flows out. The next egg contains another colour and so bit by bit, accompanied only by loud “Plops”, an abstract art work originates — archaically, uncontrollably and intuitively. At the end of this almost meditative art birth performance the stained canvas is folded up, smoothed and unfolded to a symmetrically reflected picture, astonishingly coloured and full of strong because universal symbolism.

The “PlopEgg Painting” itself releases a loose chain of thoughts — about the creation fear, the symbolic strength of the casual and the creative power of the femininity. A comparison to wild associations arises and by the intensity of the seen and experienced, one becomes clear: the art needs like so often the corporeity to be able to manifest itself.

Milo Moire’s performances start with daydreaming, with (every)daily, personal physical experiences which condense by wild associations to an internal whole piece of art about to mature and enter the world. The corporeity becomes the need for her artistic expression to make the happened – also for the spectator – experienceable. Milo Moire describes her art, as an „art led by intuition. To create art, I use THE original source of the femininity — my vagina”.

Milo Moire opens her performance cycle “The PlopEgg Painting Performance # 1 – A Birth of a Picture” on the famous art fair Art Cologne — a place at which the art gets involved in the flirtation with big figures. The hashtag 1 stands for the first Art-Birth-Picture. Other performances should follow worldwide.

Within the context of art (performance), commerce (art fair) and opinion creation (media) a deliberate-accidental creation act happens, which instantly provokes ambivalent interpretations. “In my art i try to create mental doors”, the artist says. And there is always at least one door left to pass through a mirror.

With that, I can only say as I typically do when confronted by something so mind-bogglng, my gender and our modern culture is in worse shape than I thought.

I like how she stays nekkid even after she has finished with the plopping. Maybe she’s auditioning for a role in a Lars von Trier film (or a late night Cinemax show) at the same time that she is creating her art.

I sure wish she would take this piece to some left-wing campus so that she can be accused of being matrionormative or cis-ovular-exploitative or some other modern thought crime.

A woman visits the art installation “Giant Walk-In Vagina” installed at a former women’s prison by artist Reshma Chhiba in Johannesburg on August 27, 2013. I can’t think of anything more visceral to install at a former women’s prison than a giant walk-through vaginal canal. That’s exactly what artist Reshma Chhiba has done at the old Women’s Jail in Hillsbrow, Johannesburg, as part of her art exhibition “The Two Talking Yonis.” (Yoni is the Sanskrit word for the vagina and/or vulva). Chhiba’s installation is a a 12-meter long (approximately 39 feet) tunnel made from red velvet and cotton. Visitors to the tunnel experience the sounds of screaming and laughing, which are played inside.

I’m sure neither the artist, nor the reviewer who wrote that tripe are willing to admit that by far the most enduring pieces of art, whether visual or aural, are the ones created for a paying audience, whether a patron or an employer. Self-indulgent exhibitionist idiocy tends to have a fairly short shelf-life.

I suspect that in 30 years, no one is going to be particularly interested in having a piece of PlogEgg art, even less in watching her create a new one.

This curious form of performance art comes to us courtesy of feminist artist Casey Jenkins, a self-professed “craftivist” who is knitting using wool placed — you guessed it — inside her vagina.

“I’m spending 28 days knitting from wool that I’ve inserted in my vagina,” the Melbourne-based artist explains in the video above. “Everyday I take a new skein of wool that’s been wound so that it will unravel from the centre and I stick it up inside me… and then I pull out the thread and knit.”

I also meant to add that based on the few minutes of that video I watched, it didn’t look particularly contemplative, but rather like someone with a rather bad case of constipation who couldn’t find a laxative.

Imagine how much fun “Art in the Early 21st Century” is going to be on a college comes come the year 2050. By then college enrollments will be 95% female, but the last remaining male students will no doubt flock to these classes.

Thanks to JVD @6, I was spared viewing the video. My life will not suffer much for missing it. From the description I think the 30-year time frame for the loss of interest needs to be re-thought. I would be thinking in the order of magnitude of 30 minutes.

But I only had that mandatory 3 unit Art Appreciation class, and that was 50 years ago, so what would I know.

She’s Swiss, Gramps, and doing this performance in Germany (there’s a funny moment in the video where you hear some passerby exclaim “Oh, mein Gott!”) so no doubt she is awash in government subsidies. If Obama and his cohorts had their way, her counterpart here would also be lavishly funded, and this would be the keynote address at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

If you want to see women expelling objects out of their vaginas, just go to Bangkok. Some of them shoot darts with considerable force.

I am ashamed to say I got dragged into witnessing this a couple of times. And I’m compelled to note that half the audience at these shows were bored German couples. So it sort of makes sense that in Germany they consider this art.

Really, it’s pretty disgusting. Which is why when I had to go to Bangkok I’d spend my my time at a bar where you could play Jenga with the bartenders. And tip generously. Because they’re still whores and if they weren’t wasting time playing Jenga they could be making some real money and they’ve got kids to support.

So tip generously, gents, your Jenga playing south east Asian sex workers. You are taking valuable time out of their day. And time is money. QED.

But disgusting as it is, I’m thinking of applying for an NEA grant so I can fly to Thailand, hire three hookers, and then fly to Germany. Why three hookers? Two to handle the legs for aiming purposes, so the third can use her cannon of a vagina to shoot (non-lethal) darts at Milo Whatshername as she attempts to produce her “art.”

It’d be the battle of the government grants. Does it need to be said that Milo Whosits is getting a government subsidy for this?

11. I also meant to add that based on the few minutes of that video I watched, it didn’t look particularly contemplative, but rather like someone with a rather bad case of constipation who couldn’t find a laxative.

You know it is just the same in any other field.
You would think history showes us at least anything, but no.
Feel free to disagree but the world changes rapidly, and we have no control whatsoever over it.
For instance, imagine Obama had any balls to put Putin to his place, but it seems like it’s never happening, welcome world war.
A profound post, thanks!
Sarah http://phyto-renew350i.com/